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XL Video Supplies Pet Shop Boys in Trafalgar Square
XL Video supplied video projection equipment for the recent acclaimed Pet Shop Boys/Battleship Potemkin performance in London’s Trafalgar Square – an innovative and eclectic mix of art, music and politics.
It celebrated the centenary of the 1904 mutiny aboard the troubled Potemkin, captured in Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 cinematic classic, and was enjoyed by over 15,000 people.
The band’s new soundtrack to the film was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art, and performed live by the Pet Shop Boys and the 26-piece Dresden Sinfoniker string orchestra, orchestrated by Torsten Rasch.
The seminal movie - banned from screening in Britain for many years - was projected using D5 High Definition SDI Video, specially transferred from a new ‘original film stock’ print for the occasion. The footage was beamed onto a 16 metre wide projection screen located beneath Nelson’s column, via three overlaid Barco R18 projectors with 3.2 - 5.6 :1 zoom lenses. The playback was time-code linked to band’s on stage sound system to ensure accurate time synchronisation between music score and visuals.
XL Video additionally supplied two Catalyst G5 v3 digital media servers and four additional Barco R18s to project specially created pre-show visuals onto the front of the National Gallery. These were produced by the event’s art director Simon McBurney, and programmed and co-ordinated by video design specialists Sven Ortel and Dick Straker of Mesmer. Mesmer and XL Video recently collaborated with McBurney on the Theatre de Complicite/National Theatre joint production of ‘Measure For Measure’.
McBurney’s thought-provoking visuals explored the semantics and connections between protest and art. They included footage of the late 1970’s/early 1980’s Rock Against Racism movement; the 1984/85 miners strike; the 1990 ‘Poll Tax’ protests and the wave of enormous anti-war demos over the last two years.
It also included a photo-montage of historical protests and political dissent in the Square - the Welsh miners protest, Jarrow marches and Emily Pankhurst and the suffragette movement, etc. This section of the evening was narrated by McBurney himself, and included a mad dash to the top of St. Martin’s Church spire, from where the dialogue continued.
The project was co-ordinated for XL by Malcolm Mellows, who said: “It was an honour to be involved with such a landmark and prestigious project. It was most important to the Simon McBurney and The Pet Shop Boys that a purist, original ‘filmic’ look was achieved, and in brightness, contrast and overall appearance, we exceeded all expectations.”
Mellow’s crew included Alistair MacDairmid, who took care of the Potemkin screen projection, plus Gary Beirne, Andy Bramhill and Marcus Dailey who managed the National Gallery projections.
The un-ticketed show was part of the Trafalgar Square Summer 2004 season of special events being staged in London’s most famous square. This event was project managed by John Farquhar-Smith for Flux Events. The screen was supplied by Harkness and the audio company was Britannia Row.
20th September 2004
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